From 'Cowboy Kamala' sashes to Pelosi sweatbands: Which state has the best DNC swag?

CHICAGO – The battle for the best Democratic National Convention tchotchkes is underway, with delegations competing to have the best T-shirts, buttons and SWAG after an eight-year, pandemic-induced drought.

For California, it was a rainbow Nancy Pelosi sweatband and a pin claiming Vice President Kamala Harris as a daughter of the state. Hawaii's state party passed out white leis.

Wisconsin served cheese, cheese and more cheese to its conventiongoers. Cheesehead hats, cheese wedge soap and Hook’s five-year aged cheddar.

Over at the New Hampshire state party’s convention headquarters, chairman Ray Buckley said he began planning his delegation’s memorabilia a year ago.

In addition to New Hampshire-branded buttons, he bought an assortment of Harris buttons for his delegates. They received two each. Activists received a robust selection of take-home goodies that included a reusable water bottle, coffee mug, T-shirt, phone charger, keychain, mixed nuts and mints.

“We told everyone to bring an extra bag, which I did,” he said of his advice to delegates about leaving space for the memorabilia in their luggage.

The switch from President Joe Biden to Harris at the top of the ticket did lead to a bit of a last-minute scramble. In the month since Biden quit, he said with a chuckle, “Everything had to be changed.”

“Didn’t bring the T-shirts that we originally had ordered or the buttons,” Buckley said. “But we have those collectors items.”

Instead, his delegates received a mug that said, “New Hampshire is Coconuts for Kamala Harris.”

Every four years the Democratic Party comes together to nominate its presidential candidate at a national convention. Democrats gave Harris the nod in a virtual vote earlier in August, making the gathering in Chicago less about party business and more about the spectacle.

The Wisconsin state party distributed cheeseheads to its delegates on Tuesday to wear during a ceremonial roll call vote for Harris. Party officials held on to several more that they had been having guest speakers at their morning breakfasts sign to be raffled off on the final day of the convention.

“The most important part of our SWAG is delicious Wisconsin cheese, and that is eternal,” state party chair Ben Wikler told USA TODAY of the switch from Biden branded items at one of the morning events. ”We are never going to veer from the true course of quality Wisconsin dairy products.”

Western themes have been all the rave this year. And it was not different for the “First In The West” state, Nevada.

The delegation gave out tote bags with an outline of the state and a cowboy hat, lasso, horseshoe and card speckled throughout. The delegation even had their own cowboy hat with their logo.

In the tote bag, Nevada delegates would get an array of items from caramel popcorn snacks, to espresso beans, to stickers that said “,la.”

Washington’s delegation had hats, too, and "Cowboy Kamala" sashes channeling Beyoncé.

Outside the Mississippi delegation breakfast, Lawrence Ben, an attendee from South Australia who used to work in politics visiting as an international guest of the New York delegation, showed off a trading card he said he received at a delegation breakfast.

It bore the face of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who represents New York.

Ben said he’d seen lots of “brat” themed swag mimicking the lime green used by the singer Charli XCX. He and several of friends have been making the rounds at state party breakfasts.

“It was cool to see the different SWAG that they had at each of them, and going around and trying to collect a whole heap of it,” Ben said.

His favorites? “I always love the Georgia Democrat Party stuff,” he added. “I always think they do a really good job.”

On another floor of the hotel, Georgia had T-shirts with a drawing of Harris, framed by peaches, flowers and an outline of the state.

Franklin Delano Williams, a civil rights activist from Augusta, Georgia, who’s 78 came to Tuesday’s delegation breakfast wearing the shirt. He has political buttons dating back to when he attended the March on Washington and added one this week of Harris to his collection.

He attended the convention sporting pins that date back to when he attended the March on Washington.

Out with cryptocurrency; in with political buttons

From the microphone at South Carolina the party’s executive director Jay Parmely had an announcement.

“I was just told in a text message that the official bags … which is from the convention committee, not ours, says DNC 2024, those bags are 2 inches over,” he said.

Before he could finish, delegates erupted. “Why would they do that? Why would they do that to us? They're too big for the convention center!” one said.

The convention committee ordered the bags “a long time ago before the official prohibited items list” came out from the Secret Service, he explained.

“I don't know if they have a tape measure out or not,” he said of the heavy police presence around the building where the official convention was taking place.

Outside the room, South Carolina state party chair Christale Spain showed off a handful of buttons from the party and its sponsors that her delegates had received.

“The trading buttons used to be a big thing. So we always do a button for people who still want to go into other states and trade their buttons,” she said. “Old school convention people trade buttons. I have buttons from 2016 that I traded.”

South Carolina’s delegation voted on a T-shirt and got a commemorative bag. In this one, trading cards of DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison, a former South Carolina party chair, and President Joe Biden.

Wisconsin’s bag had white buttons showcasing Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

“I’m sure there will be a lot of button trading this week,” Wikler, the state party chairman, said.

Wikler said that by the end of the week, spectators would see delegates “with their entire shirts covered in buttons, because they've gotten so involved in the gray market button trading here.”

“Cryptocurrency entrepreneurs thought that they were introducing a new alternative to official government currency, but they have seen nothing before they've gotten to a Democratic convention and watched the button markets.”

Contributing: Rebecca Morin

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: State parties compete for best Democratic national convention swag